Travelling With My Man

Well, after a day's rest at home, unpacking, doing some light laundry and some light cleaning - like I said, I came home to a not only clean but very neat house, there wasn't much that was needed to do, I was back at the Memphis airport. Thankfully, it's back to my regular routine, travelling internationally with Bruce. It's just SO much nicer and stress free when I have Bruce on my side. He does everything right down to filling in my immigration and customs forms. Thus he's the one usually stressed and mentally tired... but I think he enjoys it. Ok, he's going to deny it but he's the man lol. Ok, I'm just a plain lazy ass :)

We're in Tokyo! Happy Thanksgiving everyone. The mil isn't impressed that we are once again 'running away' from having a 'family-thanksgiving', but we are! The twosome Ryan-style Thanksgiving - SUSHI! Mmmm. We celebrated ours at our never-fail-to-please Sushi Cho. I would recommended it to anyone coming to Tokyo but you would probably never find it lol. I'm still dreaming of my sweet sweet uni. YUM!

I should get back to sleep. The clock on my computer says 1:10pm Memphis time so if I want this annoying cold to go away, I should try and get into some form of sleep schedule while I'm here. Meanwhile, Bruce the man is deep in sleep, resting his big big brain ready for another day in a few hours.

Australians in Australia... YUK!

The Aussies I have encountered in my recent and past numerous trips to Oz just hasn't been very postive. From their airline and their customer service to the customs and immigration staff, their local cab drivers (not taking in consideration the immigrant cab drivers who are quiet and scary everywhere) are rude driving around cabs that should have been done away with eons ago... the wait staff at even good restaurants (and I'm not even talking about the generally rude Asians at good Chinese restaurants!) are at best not at all impressive and personality and smiling doesn't seem to be big with them either. Australians are just generally not very nice people in their own country. Yes, they're laid back quote unquote, lazy. The pace in the country is slow, read S-L-O-W and if you like many Asians think the US is backward in many aspects (and we are!), we have already beat one continent.

With the major influx of Asian tourist and settlers, we still get treated like shit over there. I just don't understand why people continue to visit and stay. Maybe 'coz there are too many of those Mainlanders who give us foriegn Chinese a bad name lol. Gotta' find an excuse for ourselves... :D

I never look forward to going to Melbourne despite the love of being in any city for good shopping. I go only 'coz my family insists on vacationing there. They know my love for both Singapore and Australia can only extend 'that' far. After all, I can get here anything I want from Oz - even nougat lol. Okay, maybe not the awesomely delicious apple streudal pie from Perth - but it's been years since I had those so I guess I can live without them after all.

My visit to Melbourne this time is about the only time I've had fun. But it wasn't the city that made it any more exciting then the last 20 visits. It was only 'coz of EKT that Melbourne's been tolerable. Spending a good quality seven days with mom was also nice after a year's break. It's nice to be appreciated and not being called fat names. She even said my eye brows looks nice lol! Maybe it's the crappy city Melbourne air already infested with big ass flies in mid November.

Maybe dad will come to his sense and get rid of the apt there... get one say in, Hawaii or SF or NYC :) Hey a girl can dream can't she :)

Who Has A Better Husband...

Please stand up!

I have the best husband ever!

While I was away in Australia - the longest we've been apart - a full NINE days, my favourite man not only kept the house immaculate, he ran the roomba insane, cleaned out my oven (the same oven I have not used for more than a year 'coz I'm too grossed out by it ever since I made (or at least tried to make) some German apple streudal cake and failed lol... he raked leaves TWICE off our driveway and yard, got all the outdoor lights replaced, did his own laundry (he also dropped chopsticks down the dryer lint vent but that's another hilarious story on it's own), got me my favourite salted fish fried rice (before I got home in case I was too tired to eat out) and surprised me with presents! What more can a woman want?! Ok, I could name everything I want from Pottery Barn, Neiman Marcus and Saks but outside of shopping, I couldn't ask for anything more from this perfect man for me.

I love my husband. Of course I always have. I just love him even more then ever. He's a sweetie pie and my mom was right. He's a good man and a great husband. No wonder my mom is no longer worried that I am married to an American man :)

Yet Another Inadequacy Of Mine...

It's been many years (well, at least four) that Bruce and I knew we don't want to have children of our own. Whether for selfish reasons or not, we realize watching other couples, that we love the way our lives run on a daily basis and enjoy the last minute hop-on-the-next-plane kind of trips we have. Who needs contraceptives!? Watching other people's kids work well enough for us lol.

I just returned from a one week trip in Melbourne visiting with mom, my brother, sister-in-law (not the one here in Memphis obviously; the nice shopperholic one married to my brother) and the most precious thing I could ever meet, my seven month old niece, Emma Karissa Tay. Yes, the same baby that Bruce and I threatened to name Pork Sa since her last name is Tay. Yup, Pork SaTay LOL!!! Only Bruce and I can think up of something like that while laying very sober after a nap in bed in Tokyo before little Emma was born...

My first meeting with EKT brought lots of laughter. I was afraid Emma would not take to me seeing that other then my dad, everyone else at home is pretty err... normal... nice and certainly speak at a rather regular tone of voice. But she took to me alright. Yes, even my insane loud laughter lol. She sleeps through all of them. It's her mom who gets a hissy-fit when I laugh like a roaring thunder lol. Maybe EKT's been lectured about her crazy auntie Karen who sends her packages of presents from America and packs more then half her ginourmous suitcase with more baby stuff then a custom officer could fathom for a childless traveller for a one week vacation. Or maybe she's just a regular Tay-baby who loves to smile. Oh baby Emma's smiles. Her little beady almond eyes that practically disappears when you greet her each time she wakes up from her sleep; when you mention the word 'MUFFIN'. When she actually gets some muffin (don't tell her parents lol) and actually brings up my thumb back into her mouth with her tiny hands to suck the rest of the muffin off. Her tiny little chubby fingers that wave like the Queen of England, do the okay-sign (sometimes with a wink), pulls on her mommy's hair or scratches my fat cheeks. All bring laughter to everyone around her. She's been a blessing to my family and has made everyone especially my mother a very happy grandmother despite having a hard year of losing her sister.

I never thought I could fall in love again. But with Emma, I have. No worries, I'm not going to go pester Bruce and say I've changed my mind about kids. I haven't. Nah... thus the heading. I feel almost inadequate as a woman. Is this normal? Selfish, I can understand... but I really don't have that maternal instinct screaming for attention. As much as I love Emma, I realize even more now that being a mother just isn't a thing I yearn to be... a week of being a full time aunt being in the presence of the most adorable girl was as close to being maternal as I'd ever want to get. Thank goodness for siblings who are much less selfish.

My Husband Does Not Have To Kill Me...!

The new couch was just delivered. I have new a new couch and a couple of chairs and I'm a happy camper. Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!

We have a real living room now unlike the one we used to have with the gawd awful uncomfortable and ugly Norwalk couch we got. Just for the record, we hate Norwalk! The moment that stupid couch got delivered, and dealing with the unprofessional idiotic staff at their store and the head office, I've been waiting to buy a new couch. Three years later, Bruce finally gave in and got me this couch 8 weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago, he threatened (well ok, I think he meant it) that if the couch got here and that I tell him I didn't like it like I did with the last couch... ok, my exact words were more like "YUKS! I hate it, I want a new couch!!", he'd have to kill me. No questions about it. ...and believe-you-me, he would have lol. You would too if you were him. The poor guy has to put up with my unbearable insanity on a daily basis. I'm sure my whole family feels sorry for him too that's why they love him so much hahaha! Ok, so he's a nice guy too, that's why.

So sweetie, I'm happy and I love my couch. Now what else can I replace in this house hahaha! Oh, new dishwasher!!!